21-letter words containing a, w, n, i
- leaning tower of pisa — a round, marble campanile in Pisa, Italy, begun in 1174 and now 17 feet (5.2 meters) out of the perpendicular in its height of 179 feet (54 meters).
- luck was on sb's side — If you say that luck was on someone's side, you mean that they succeeded in something by chance as well as by their own efforts or ability.
- madagascar periwinkle — a plant, Catharanthus roseus (or Vinca rosea), cultivated for its glossy foliage and pink or white flowers.
- maidenhair spleenwort — an evergreen fern, Asplenium trichomanes, abundant in woody areas of the North Temperate Zone, having thickly clustered fronds.
- maintenance allowance — money that is given to someone, usually on a regular basis, in order to help them pay for the things that they need
- make one's peace with — the normal, nonwarring condition of a nation, group of nations, or the world.
- mechanical weathering — any of the various weathering processes that cause physical disintegration of exposed rock without any change in the chemical composition of the rock: Collision between rock surfaces can cause mechanical weathering.
- microware corporation — Authors of OS-9. Address: Des Moines, Iowa, USA.
- motherwell and wishaw — a burgh in the Motherwell district, in S Scotland.
- network administrator — (job) A person who manages a communications network within an organisation. Responsibilities include network security, installing new applications, distributing software upgrades, monitoring daily activity, enforcing licensing agreements, developing a storage management program and providing for routine backups.
- new year's resolution — If you make a New Year's resolution, you make a decision at the beginning of a year to start doing something or to stop doing something.
- north east new guinea — the NE part of the former Australian Territory of New Guinea; now part of Papua New Guinea.
- nuclear power station — a station or plant where nuclear energy is converted into heat, electricity, etc
- oil-in-water emulsion — An oil-in-water emulsion is a mixture in which an oily medicine is dispersed in water or other liquid.
- one-way hash function — (algorithm) (Or "message digest function") A one-way function which takes a variable-length message and produces a fixed-length hash. Given the hash it is computationally infeasible to find a message with that hash; in fact one can't determine any usable information about a message with that hash, not even a single bit. For some one-way hash functions it's also computationally impossible to determine two messages which produce the same hash. A one-way hash function can be private or public, just like an encryption function. MD5, SHA and Snefru are examples of public one-way hash functions. A public one-way hash function can be used to speed up a public-key digital signature system. Rather than sign a long message, which can take a long time, compute the one-way hash of the message, and sign the hash.
- paper-white narcissus — a white-flowered variety of Narcissus tazetta, often forced for indoor bloom.
- poweropen association — An independent body established to promote, and test conformance with, the PowerOpen Environment (POE).
- powersoft corporation — (company) A leading vendor of client/server application development tools. In February 1994, Watcom became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Powersoft Corporation which merged with Sybase on 13 February 1995. In April 1995, the new company is the fastest growing top-ten software company and the seventh largest software company in the world. Headquarters: Concord, Massachusetts, USA.
- prader-willi syndrome — a congenital condition characterized by obsessive eating, obesity, learning difficulties, and small genitalia
- protestant work ethic — work ethic.
- queen's-pawn openings — a class of chess openings in which the pawn in front of the queen is advanced two squares on the first move.
- redwood national park — a national park in N California: redwood forest with some of the world's tallest trees. 172 sq. mi. (445 sq. km).
- ring down the curtain — to lower the curtain at the end of a theatrical performance
- safe in the knowledge — If you do something safe in the knowledge that something else is the case, you do the first thing confidently because you are sure of the second thing.
- sail against the wind — to sail a course that slants slightly away from the true direction of the wind; sail closehauled
- saint lawrence seaway — a series of channels, locks, and canals between Montreal and the mouth of Lake Ontario, a distance of 182 miles (293 km), enabling most deep-draft vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean, up the St. Lawrence River, to all the Great Lakes ports: developed jointly by the U.S. and Canada.
- salam-weinberg theory — the electroweak theory.
- santa cruz water lily — a South American aquatic plant, Victoria cruziana, of the water lily family, having floating leaves from 2–5 feet (0.6–1.5 meters) and deep pink or red flowers.
- sir william alexander — Sir William (Alexander) 1867–1957, Scottish lexicographer and philologist.
- slatwall merchandiser — A slatwall merchandiser is a three-dimensional display unit with grooves cut into its surface into which metal hanging rails can be fixed at various heights.
- snr bandwidth product — (communications) The integral of the SNR over frequency. The SNR bandwidth product is an important limit in the capacity of a communication channel.
- sovereign wealth fund — an investment fund created using the financial assets of a national government
- submerged arc welding — a type of heavy electric-arc welding using mechanically fed bare wire with the arc submerged in powdered flux to keep out oxygen
- subsistence allowance — money given in advance to a new soldier, employee, etc., to buy food, clothing, and pay for other necessities while awaiting a first pay.
- swim against the tide — to resist prevailing opinion
- take one's (own) life — to commit suicide
- thermal power station — a power station in which heat is converted into electricity
- throw one's hat at it — to give up all hope of getting or achieving something
- to lay down your life — If someone lays down their life for another person, they die so that the other person can live.
- to let your hair down — If you let your hair down, you relax completely and enjoy yourself.
- to my way of thinking — You add to my way of thinking to a statement in order to indicate that you are giving your opinion.
- to sink without trace — If you say that someone or something sinks without trace or sinks without a trace, you mean that they stop existing or stop being successful very suddenly and completely.
- to take the long view — If you take the long view, you consider what is likely to happen in the future over a long period, rather than thinking only about things that are going to happen soon.
- traffic control tower — an elevated structure for the visual observation and control of the air and ground traffic at an airport
- twist the lion's tail — a large, usually tawny-yellow cat, Panthera leo, native to Africa and southern Asia, having a tufted tail and, in the male, a large mane.
- up hill and down dale — strenuously and persistently
- warm silence software — A small company run by(?) Robin Watts, producing software for the Acorn Archimedes.
- washington's birthday — February 22, formerly observed as a legal holiday in most states of the U.S. in honor of the birth of George Washington.
- watenstedt-salzgitter — former name of Salzgitter.
- water of constitution — water present in a molecule that cannot be removed without disrupting the molecule.